Κατα Μαρκον ΙΙΙ

Tom Wright’s ‘For Everyone’ series is a great resource for ministers who want to encourage members of the congregation to delve deeper in their own study of scripture. They are a great starting point for anyone has yet to be exposed to the wider world of Biblical Studies. They are well written and provide a broader narrative framework of whole NT book. While not drowning the boredom of many small lay person commentaries one can be assured that although plainly written for ‘everyone’ they are undergirded up by very good scholarship.

I came across this reflection on Wright’s commentary on Mark 1:9-15, ““A good deal of Christian faith is a matter of learning to live by this different reality even when we can’t see it. Sometimes, at decisive and climatic moments the curtain is drawn back and we see, or hear, what’s really going on; but most of the time we walk by faith. One of the things that Mark is saying to us, in the way he has written his gospel, is that when we look at the whole life of Jesus that’s how we are to understand it. Look at this story, he says, look at this life, and learn to see and hear it in its heavenly vision, the heavenly voice. Learn to hear these words addressed to yourself. Let them change you, mould you, make you somebody new, the person God wants you to be. Discover in this story the normally hidden heavenly dimension of God’s world.” (Tom Wright, Mark for Everyone, 2004, p.5&6)

The preparation of John the Baptist for the coming of the one more powerful, the echoes of exodus and wilderness, and the apocalyptic in-breaking of the divine affirmation, are all ways in which Mark invites his hearers to enter the story that is about to be told. There can be no doubt that this is the Son of God. However, his coming is far more than the establishment of a new political order or geographical conquest. Mark has invited us into a story in which God has broken into our time and with it comes the wonders of new life. John the Baptist, the baptism and divine affirmation of Jesus and beginning of his ministry, all herald the good news of exodus and promised land for us as the people of God.

Biblical Studies Conferences

New Testament Scholar and PHD supervisor to the notorious Chris Tilling, Dr Max Turner professor of New Testament Studies at the London School of Theology, will be the keynote speaker at the annual Anzats conference being held at the Australian Lutheran College, Adelaide in early July. Click Here for the conference brochure

Also, Richard Baukham will be one of the the keynote speakers at the first annual Australasian Conference for the Academy and the Church being held in Brisbane in late June More info HERE.

This is what the website has to say about Richard, “Richard Bauckham is a New Testament scholar and former Professor of New Testament at St. Mary’s College, University of St. Andrews, Scotland. He received his Ph.D. from Cambridge. Bauckham is perhaps best known for his studies of the book of Revelation and for his commentaries on Jude and 2 Peter. His book Jesus and the Eyewitnesses (Eerdmans) won the 2007 Book Award in Biblical Studies from Christianity Today“.

Witherington on Reader Response

[T]here are serious problems with the theory of meaning that undergirds reader-response criticism. While it is certainly true that readers, especially active readers, bring expectations, thoughts, interests to the reading of documents, it is not true either that “meaning is merely in the eye of the beholder” or that “meaning is merely an event that happens between the reader and the text.” It is of course possible for people to read all kinds of things into texts that are not in fact there. Doubtless it is possible to treat a text like an abstract painting. But one must be able to make a distinction between meaning, which does indeed lie in the text and has been encoded there by the author, and significance.

A text may well have a significance for a person that goes well beyond the author’s original and intended meaning. Indeed, it may even go against what the author intended. But it is rank solipsism to suggest that the author is unimportant, or that all we have is texts (ignoring of course other forms of historical evidence such as artifacts, coins, and the like), or that we do not need to respect the author of the document and enter into a dialogue with him (trying to find out what he had in mind), or that the compact between author and audience that sets up the genre of the work and provides the author’s clues as to how it should be read can be safely ignored” (Witherington III, B. 2001. The Gospel of Mark : A socio-rhetorical commentary (57). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.: Grand Rapids, MI)

This is a great quote if for no other reason than he uses the term, “rank solipsism”!

Breaking News: Chris Tilling Dumped!

Reports are sketchy, however, it would seem that St Paul’s Theological Centre New Testament tutor Chris Tilling, of Chris Tilling Very Holy Ministries fame (pictured), has been dumped from the GodPod starting line up. GodPod episode 42 recently went to air without its Biblical Studies major. A source close to Tilling says it was nothing more than a rest after stressing the limits of his Biblical knowledge in a recent edition of the very popular podcast. However, Scripture, Ministry and the People of God can confirm that Chris’ consumption of biscuits during the program’s recording has reached epidemic proportions with the Archbishop considering widening the Windsor report to include the gluttony of Tilling. There are already rumours that the next Lamberth conference will be boycotted by both of Tilling’s supporters. More to follow soon!

Κατα μαρκον ΙΙ (According to Mark)

This morning at our church we began our series on the Gospel according to Mark. I found this post by Jim West which, for me, emphasises the need for the church to be the ‘ears that hear’ the gospel. As Williams argues, scholars may be able to shed light of elements of style and history but the message of the Gospel of Mark is hidden for those who are spiritually ready. While the academy is a needed and vital part of the Christian world, the home of Scripture is the community of God’s people.

“I would like to argue that the reason why scholars have had so much difficulty with Mark and cannot agree about the meaning of his narrative, is that Mark adopted Jesus’ (and Isaiah’s) approach as his own. The Gospel is not meant to be a clear and comprehensible exposition of Jesus’ life and teachings. It is rather intended to conceal and only to hint at the secret, the mysterion of the kingdom (4:11). Moreover, that mysterion cannot be penetrated by even the cleverest scholarly mind if, in fact, that mind is not “spiritually ready.” Mark essentially denies that the Gospel can be understood “objectively,” as a set of ideas to be intellectually grasped and understood. Understanding demands spiritual insight. Does this mean, then, that Markan scholars must abandon their task entirely and turn to other, more exoteric documents? No, not at all. Scholars must not pretend to penetrate the mystery through scholarly sleight-of-hand; that would be to desecrate the holy. But we can at least examine the structure and themes of the Gospel carefully in order to illumine the hints of meaning that Mark gives for those who do have “ears to hear.”

That’s a couple of paragraphs set towards the first third of an essay in Bible and Interpretation today by Jay Williams titled Mark, the Gospel of Radical Transformation. Enjoy!“

κατα μαρκον (According to Mark)

“Mark is…an interweaving of biographical and kerygmatic themes that perfectly conveys the sense of meaning of that unique figure in human history, Jesus of Nazareth…Furthermore, by tying the significance of Jesus for the church so tightly to a series of historical occurrences in Palestine in the third decade of the first century, Mark has ensured that the church, if it is to be true to its canonical documents, never abandons the real humanity of Christ whom it worships. By reminding Christians that their salvation depends on the death and resurrection of Christ, Mark has inextricably tied Christian faith to the reality of historical events” (Carson & Moo, An Introduction to the New Testament – 2nd Edition, 2005, p.192)

Hermeneutical dilemmas abound when interpreting any biblical text. This is more the case when determining the historical reliability of the Jesus stories. Some may argue that even if stories are not entirely factual they are, nonetheless true. It is important that as Ministers we don’t feel compelled to ‘defend’ the historicity of the Jesus stories for fear of people losing faith. Our task is to have exegetical integrity. God is responsible for keeping people’s faith. We must, as faithful exegetes, base our conclusions on our findings; from this point our theological reflection can flow.

Finally, Are Carson and Moo correct in their observations about the historical reality of Jesus serving as the foundation for the church’s worship today? Or, are they simply defending a conservative agenda that seeks to ensure that people continue to believe in the ‘historical Jesus’ for fear of losing one’s divine Christology? The minimalist might easily think so. Did Mark intend to write a historical narrative or ancient biography? Or, did he intend to convey theological meaning by composing narratives from the Jesus tradition to continue the reality of Jesus in the lives of the early church to whom he wrote?

The τέλος of Biblical Inquiry

We enter the world of the text, the world in which God is subject, in order to become participants in the text. We have our part to play in this text, a apart which is given to us by the Holy Spirit. As we play our part we become part-icipants. We are given this book so that we can imaginatively and believingly enter the world of the text and follow Jesus. John Calvin in his treatment of Holy Scripture is commonly cited in this regard: “all right knowledge of God is born of obedience.” There is a hardly a scripture exegete who hasn’t said the same things. If we have not entered this text as participants we aren’t going to understand what is going on, This text cannot be understood by watching from the bleachers.” (Eugene Peterson, Eat This Book, p.69)

Whether our purpose in coming to this most Holy Text is academic or devotional, whether our purpose is sermonic preparation or exegetical endeavor; we must always hold at the forefront of mind and heart that God is the subject and content of this text. Whether it be literary, historical or theological inquiry, God is the τέλος of all information pertaining to the study of the scriptures. Finally, it must be noted, this applies even more so to the Minister as they come before the the text week in week out.

Jim West the Editor!

I recently purchased Eugene Peterson’s new book, “The Word Made Flesh” also entitled in the USA as, “Tell it Slant” (Book review to follow soon). I noticed towards the back of the book on page 271 (the Appendix) that Mr Peterson refers to books that honour the sacred inherent in language. As one would expect the first three books on the list are authored by none other than the great Bishop (hail the great man, hail the great man), The New Testament and the People of God, Jesus and the Victory of God, and The Resurrection of the Son of God. In the glowing praise of of these fine works the author is named as Norman Wright! What sought of devilry is this?

The response I received from the publisher was, “Thank you very much for your email pointing out the mistake in the appendix. Please be assured that the correction has now been made and ‘Nicholas’ rather than ‘Norman’ will appear in forthcoming reprints of the title.“

However, further investigation has revealed that this is the sought of work akin to the guild of Biblical Minimalists! There can be no doubt that the man pictured (left) is too blame. Who knows what lengths he will go to to smear the great Bishop’s name. Perhaps Jim West has taken a job at Hodder-Faith Publishing just to smear and defame this great Biblical Maximalist! If this is so, shame on you Jim West, Shame!

Justification: God’s Plan, Paul’s Vision or, "Who is John Piper?"

The soon to be released new book from Bishop N.T. Wright, “Justification: God’s Plan, Paul’s Vision” has brought with a barage of praise from Academics and Ministers from around the world. Most of whom seem grateful that they will no longer have to put up with John piper pontificating why N.T. Wright is wrong and he is wright!

Here are some snippets of the endorsements from IVP’s website:

Richard B Hays, “For some time now, I have watched in puzzlement as some critics, imagining themselves as defenders of Paul’s gospel, have derided Tom Wright as a dangerous betrayer of the Christian faith. In fact, Paul’s gospel of God’s reconciling, world-transforming grace has no more ardent and eloquent exponent in our time than Tom Wright.”

Scot McKnight “Tom Wright has out-Reformed America’s newest religious zealots–the neo-Reformed–by taking them back to Scripture and to its meaning in its historical context. Wright reveals that the neo-Reformed are more committed to tradition than to the sacred text. This irony is palpable on every page of this judicious, hard-hitting, respectful study.”

Darrell Bock, “Frank theological table talk is sometimes a necessary endeavor. Tom Wright’s Justification is his substantive reply to critical work by many, including John Piper, on the New Perspective. Wright correctly reminds us that this approach should be better called New or Fresh Perspectives. The goal is to open up the text concerning what it originally said in the first century, not change it.”

Furthermore, Trevin Wax has an interview with Tom here.

I am looking forward to Wright’s new book. Justification is one of the most overused and least understood terms in the church (or perhaps running a close second to atonement). Wright is the kind of pastoral academic whose books I can hand to almost anyone in our congregation without fear that they will get lost in a malaise of academic phrases and terms.

Finally, this is Wright’s own thoughts on the book (from Trevin’s interview, “More generally, I hope that the book will alert people to the fact that the underlying discussion is really about taking Scripture seriously – (a) the whole Scripture, not just selected parts, and (b) Scripture as the final arbiter, over against all human traditions including our own! That cannot but help the church in its purpose in the world”.

Depersonalising the Text

One afternoon in the middle of last year I was trying to make the transition from my understanding of the text to how we might understand and experience it in our day-to-day life and I found myself increasingly frustrated. As I sat in my study that afternoon it dawned on me that this is the great problem of the Bible for most people. The flannel-graph stories many people have grown up with in Sunday School seem to be far removed from the actuality of our daily life.

It is no great surprise that for many, myself included, there is apathy towards this book that reflects Christian life and practice. What does an ancient text have to offer me? What does this text, that retells stories from centuries past, really have to say to me? Why on earth would I want to read about the pomegranates on the bottom of the High Priest’s garments? How does Moses’ experience with a burning bush that talks to him, relate to my everyday life and worship? Likewise, when one studies the text in any great detail it is easy to lose sight of the forest for the trees . It is very easy, whether studying the historical and literary context of the text, or reading the Bible for devotional purposes to fall into a dangerous trap of depersonalising the text. The Bible becomes just another book on our shelves as opposed to God’s word, a word given to us as part of His relationship to us!

“Every part of the revelation, every aspect, every form is personal – God is relational at the core – and so what ever is said, whatever is revealed is also personal and relational. There is nothing impersonal, nothing merely functional, everything from beginning to end and in between is personal.” (Eugene Peterson, Eat This Book, p.27)